Vehicles for Sale Nearby

Toyota Camry Fuse and Electrical Questions

Comments

hello. i have a 1993 toyota camry. "most" of the time my blinkers freeze. sometimes they blink once and then freeze. blinkers left and right freeze. also my hazard lights freeze. both blinkers and hazard freeze inside and out the car. it gets really frustrating and dangerous because the people behind/side of me will get confused. id appreciate if you can help me. thanks.

The bulbs and flasher work together, to blink at the right timing. If the bulbs don't draw enough current (a bulb burnt out), or too much current (a bulb shorted out or filaments broken/crossed), your blinker will flash too slow or too fast.

So the first thing to do in identifying and fixing these problems is to make sure the bulbs are all good and working correctly. Then if that hasn't fixed the problem, replace the flasher.

Get help and have someone put on the brake lights, the running lights (front and back), and the brake lights and running lights in combination to make sure all bulbs are working correctly, and have the correct brightness.

Common failures are corrosion in the socket providing high or no electrical resistance, or shorting; a bulb with a broken filament not working at all, or a dual filament bulb with one of the filaments broken and cross shorting internally to the other circuit. For instance, you apply the brake providing power to the brake circuit, and the bulb filament shorting causes all of the running lights to turn on. Or turning on the running lights, causes the brake circuit to light up.

If the bulbs are all working correctly and your blinker is still not working correctly, then replace the blinker. It's in a small relay junction box, in the drivers side foot well, on the left side.

running lights and brake lights work. the running lights are dimmer; but when i press the brake they both running lights and brake lights light up the same brightness.

"The flasher blinks okay, but when you put on your brakes the flasher freezes and stops blinking?"

my blinkers sometimes automatically freezes right when i turn on the blinkers. usually when when it works and im at a full stop it freezes. for example: im getting ready for a right turn it freezes sometimes when i dont even have my foot on the brake, it just freezes. and im waiting for the turn and im fully stopped it flashes for like 3 seconds and it freezes. and i keep on turn it on and off till it blinks.

can you please tell me one more time how do check the bulbs if they are working correctly. please tell me exactly what do you want me to do to check the bulbs. sorry im not sure if you told me what to do, i just want to make sure im doing what you want me to do. thanks again.

They are easiest to check in the evening at dusk as it's starting to get dark, as you need to observe whether bulbs are on or off, but more importantly you are also looking for subtle differences in the intensity of bulbs brightness (dim or bright).

A number of bulbs actually have two filaments inside them, a bright filament, and a dim filament. Many weird problems can occur when one of these filaments break and short across the other filament.

You are going to check from the simplest operation, to the most complex operation, looking for the first clue/symptom that something isn't working correctly.

1.) Check that the brake lights work, and only turn on the high intensity brake light filaments in the back. Have someone apply the brakes and hold them on. Walk around the car and make sure that the front running lights are OFF. Make sure that the brake lights in the back are ON. Make sure that the intensity of the bulbs in the back are the same, and HIGH. Turn brake lights OFF.

2.) Next have your helper turn ON the running lights only, no brakes. Walk around your car and observe the bulbs. Make sure that all four corners have lights on, but they are DIM.

3.) With the running lights still ON, next have your helper slowly pump the brakes on and off, while you walk around the car and observe. In the back, you should see that the lights are DIM (with the same intensity from left to right), and then become BRIGHT (with the same intensity from left to right). In the front, you should observe that the lights are DIM all of the time, and do not change intensity when the brake is applied or released.

4,) With the running lights turned OFF, and the brakes OFF, now turn the left turn signal ON. Walk around the car and observe. The front left signal should blink BRIGHT, nothing happening on the front right. the left rear should blink BRIGHT, nothing happening on the rear right. Now turn the right turn signal ON, observe for correct operation of the right turn signal. Note intensity of bulbs, they should be BRIGHT, not DIM when on.

5.) Next observe what happens when your helper applies the brakes (and holds them ON), while the left turn signal is ON. Left front should blink brightly. Left rear should blink brightly. Right rear should be ON BRIGHT all of the time. Right front should be nothing. Check for similar operation when the turn signal is turned on for the right.

6.) Now check what happens when the running lights are ON, the brake lights are ON and held on, and the left turn signal is ON. Front left should be DIM, and blink BRIGHT. Front right should be always DIM. Rear left should be DIM< and blink BRIGHT. Rear right should be always BRIGHT.

step 4.) all blinkers are good, light up bright. didnt freeze at anytime.

step 5.) blinking was good/normal/bright. didnt freeze at anytime.

step 6.) this is when the freezing begins. i turned on the left blinker, it blinks for a time couple of times then it freezes; then i turn it off then i turn on and it freezes and it doesnt even blink once, then i turn it off again, turn it on again then it starts blinking good then eventually it freezes. same goes for the right blinker. but when i turned on the right blinker is freezes right away, not even one blink.

My '03 Camry sat dormant for 12 days. When I came back battery would not start car. This was an original battery and I was warned at last oil change that the battery was weak. I jump started the Camry and drove to Auto parts store to get battery installed last night. I watched them install the battery and saw no problems with installation. Ever since new battery was installed the car runs poorly (no power and the engine shimmys). I assumed that this was due to the computer in the car losing its memory. I have now driven the car 30 miles and car is still running poorly.

Could be the battery is undercharged, or the computer lost its' brains.

Can you verify that the battery voltage, with the engine off, is sitting at around 13volts. Most probably it's okay, but you may have a battery that is low or your alternator has a problem and isn't charging up your battery.

When they replaced the battery, did they plug in a temporary battery supply to the engine computer to keep it's brains intact? Most typical would plug something under the dash.

I just replaced my battery 2 weeks ago, and didn't have any problems at all.

Voltage with engine off is 12.55 V. Starter turns over with no hesitation. Check engine light is on and diagnostic code is "P0304 Cylinder 4 misfire". I replaced all four plugs (with the proper irridium type) and engine is still running rough. I am trying to troubleshoot the ignition coil associated with cylinder #4. Since I do not have a diagram of the coil, I am simply comparing to the coil associated with #1.

At this point I am thinking the timing with the battery replacement is simply a coincidence.

The symptoms lead me to believe that you have a bad dual filament bulb, or some wrong bulbs, however you checking the bulb intensity does not identify a bad bulb.

There are two totally separate circuits: 1.) the low intensity running lights and 2.) the high intensity brake/turn signals which has the signal flasher as part of that circuit. The only place the circuits get close together is at the bulb itself. The fact that your turn signal flasher works normal except when the running lights are on, tells me that one of the bulbs must be causing the problem. This is actually a fairly common failure where one filament burns out and breaks, and then lays across the other filament and causes a short between the two circuits. Unfortunately, you looking at the bulbs has not validated that a bulb is bad, and/or which bulb it is.

So if I therefore assume that the bulbs are the correct bulbs, and that they are working correctly, then the only thing left it could be is the flasher itself. That flasher is behind the left kick panel. Sitting in the drivers seat, put your left foot on the floor and slide it to the left until it hits the kick panel on the left. Take that panel off, and there is a relay block behind that. The flasher is the top corner of that relay block. If you take the panel off, and then turn your flasher on, you should be able to feel it clicking when it's working. Replace that flasher.

I guess it's possible that your flasher is just soo borderline that sometimes it works and other times it doesn't. The only way to prove for certain, is to just replace it.

If you do replace it and it doesn't fix the problem, you have to go back and look closer at those bulbs. You may have to take the bulbs out of the sockets to physically look at the filaments while they are on. A dual filament bulb only fits in the socket one way. You will notice that the prongs which hold the bulb in the socket are offset and at a different height. That offset cooresponds to an offset in the socket. Also when you look at a bulb, one filament stands up higher in the bulb than the other. This is important to look at to verify the high intensity brightness compared to the low intensity. I still feel that there is something not right with one of those bulbs.

I see I did not answer all of your questions. No temporary battery supply was plugged in when replacing the battery.

I ohmed out all of the leads from the ignition coils associated with cylinders 1 and 4. They appeared identical. The only resistance reading I was able to obtain was approximately 390 ohms between pins 3 and 4.

When I reinstall the ignition coils I intend to switch the ignition coils between cylinders 1 and 4 and see if the error code then follows the coil.

I disregarded the error code in my original post as I had not had it read at the auto shop and additionally I thought the computer was confused and still trying to reestablish it's memory. I now believe that the battery replacement and the engine problems were a unrelated coincidence.

The error code was "P0304 Cylinder 4 misfire". I have replaced all of the spark plugs with the proper irridium type as they were due anyway. The engine is still running rough. I have pulled the #4 and # 1 ignition coil and ohmed them out on the work bench. I can find no difference between them but only got a reading between pins 3 and 4 (390 ohms). I intend to switch the ignition coils when I reinstall them to see if the error moves with the coil.

I would love to hear any ideas you might have. I apologize for the initial confusion.

i cant seem to find the flasher. that picture didnt really help me. its located on the lower left side of the driver right, behind the panel? well it looks kind of confusing. i guess when i ask for a flasher ill know what it looks like.